himself. The blog has a very popular Facebook page with thousands of followers and
Blondet’s articles are often shared on websites and social networks.
Nearly all Italian anti-Semitic websites, including the more radical ones such as
Radio Islam and HolyWar, define themselves as “anti-Zionist”, “anti-racist”, “politically
incorrect”, “hated by the right and by the left”, and “inconvenient”.
Anti-Semitism on Facebook
Between April and September 2015, the CDEC Observatory on Anti-Semitism monitored
156 Italian Facebook profiles: 72 representing groups and 84 representing individuals. The
groups and individual objects of analysis were chosen on the basis of their aggressiveness
and violence. All profiles were analyzed and a total of 2,288 posts were collected and
stored: 948 from groups and 1,340 from individuals.
The 72 groups express various aspects of anti-Semitism. They contain conspiracy
theories mixed with negationism, negationism mixed with racist humor, accusations of
blood libel combined with anti-Zionism, etc.
The administrators of these groups often have one or more reserve profiles that they
use when the Facebook administrators intervene to close the principal one.
The forms of expression used on these Facebook pages are generally characterized
by extremely aggressive graphics and words and the propensity to insult, couched in the
language of extreme hate speech. They tend to transcend boundaries to the point of
dehumanizing their targets and justifying violence against them: “crush these sewer rats”,
“eliminate them without pity”. The tone is both aggressive and paranoid.
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